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Comment: The cover shows heavy wear. The cover has curled corners. The cover has stickers or tape on it. The cover has slightly curled corners. The spine is slightly warped. The pages show normal wear and tear. There is a signature or handwriting on the inside front cover. There is light highlighting or handwriting on some pages. Book only; supplement is NOT included! Pages have age spots and/or yellow discoloration/stains. Some pages are folded in half or have folded corners. Item ships secure with Fulfillment By Amazon, Prime customers get 2nd day at no charge!

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The Essential Herman Kahn offers the public for the first time an anthology consisting of the best of Herman Kahn's work. It brings together, out of the several thousands of pages published in his life, the 'essential Kahn' the most relevant, consequential, and interesting themes, ideas, and arguments of his work in areas such as international relations, public policy, environmentalism, strategic thinking, and futurology.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Herman Kahn's seminal thinking, extracted in this smart volume, is timeless. From thinking about nuclear war to anticipating the complaints about capitalism and forecasting the future, Kahn offers relevant ideas for today's challenges of terrorism, financial meltdown, and global warming. An indispensible read or re-read! (Henry R. Nau, The George Washington University)

Broken into four parts, The Essential Herman Kahn reflects his wide range of interests: from nuclear strategy to prospects for economic growth, from the state of Western culture to methodologies for forecasting. Kahn, as one might suggest, would be no easy man to condense; but Aligica and Weinstein have done a remarkably good job of it. (The Weekly Standard, September 7, 2009)

An excellent selection of the works of one of the most original and influential thinkers of our time. (Mark Blitz, Claremont McKenna College)

About the Author

Paul Dragos Aligica is senior fellow at the Mercatus Center of George Washington University, faculty fellow at the James Buchanan Center for Political Economy, associate faculty at the Center for Global Studies at George Mason University, and adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute. Kenneth R. Weinstein is chief executive officer of the Hudson Institute.

Top customer reviews

It is very difficult to take the work of a prolific, wide-ranging, and influential author and choose and compile a representative sampling of their work in only 260 pages, but Aligica and Weinstein have managed the daunting task. Much of Herman Kahn's once controversial work and methodologies have become such an integral part of modern discourse, or in the case of futurist work, come to pass with uncanny accuracy, that it is well worth taking a moment to understand these roots, often unrecognized and uncredited. In addition, Aligica and Weinstein, through their choices, have revealed consistent threads and concepts often obscured by the sheer mass of Herman Kahn's output. They have also restrained themselves from comment and interpretation, allowing the chosen samples to speak for themselves. It is to be hoped that the book revives interest in a thinker and author, much of whose work is still applicable (frighteningly so in the case of his nuclear war work) decades after his death.

Nobel Prize winner Thomas Schelling states in his foreword to the recently re-released ON ESCALATION by Kahn, "I know of no better preparation for future nuclear dangers than this book. It's forty-five years old but is a classic that will never be out of date. I recommend it not only to those who, were it 1965, would find it essential in thinking about the most dangerous issues in international affairs, but to those in a dozen or more nations now to whom nuclear weapons are a new concern and preoccupation. This is a genuine classic that, I'm afraid, will never be out of date."

As a futurist Kahn's predictions, often deemed overly optimistic, foolish or controversial at the time, have come to pass with such phenomenal accuracy that it is difficult for most people to presently imagine they were once considered shocking and unlikely. And the methodologies he developed for thinking about the future, or any issue, are cornerstones of all modern future studies.

It is always worthwhile to study the work of men with a commitment to thinking; to clear, impartial thought applied to the most critical issues of the day. "In defense of thinking" is an appropriate sub-title.Thank you Aligica and Weinstein for a job well done.